Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a work for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, written in 1899 while the French composer was studying at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. Ravel published an orchestral version in 1910 using two flutes, an oboe, two clarinets (in B), two bassoons, two horns, harp, and strings. The Pavane lasts between six and seven minutes and is considered a masterpiece.
History
Ravel described the piece as "an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court".
This antique miniature is not meant to pay tribute to any particular princess from history, but rather expresses a nostalgic enthusiasm for Spanish customs and sensibilities, which Ravel shared with many of his contemporaries (most notably Debussy and Albéniz) and which is evident in some of his other works such as the Rapsodie espagnole and the Boléro.
Ravel dedicated the Pavane to his patron, the Princesse de Polignac, and he probably performed the work at the princess's home on several occasions. It was first published by Eugène Demets in 1900, but it attracted little attention until the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes gave the first performance on 5 April 1902. The work soon became very popular, although Ravel came to think of it as "poor in form" and unduly influenced by the music of Chabrier.
In early 1912, Ravel reviewed another pianist's performance of the piece, commenting: "By an ironic coincidence, the first work about which I am called to report happens to be my own Pavane pour une Infante défunte. I do not feel in the least embarrassed to talk about it; it is sufficiently old to let the composer give it up to the critic. From so far, I do not see its merits any more; but, alas! I can see its defects very well: the influence of Chabrier, which is too obvious, and the rather poor form. In my belief, the remarkable interpretation contributed much toward the success of this timorous, incomplete work."
thumb|upright=1.5|Beginning
Ravel intended the piece to be played extremely slowly – more slowly than almost any modern interpretation, according to his biographer Benjamin Ivry. The critic Émile Vuillermoz complained that Ravel's playing of the work was "unutterably slow". However, the composer was not impressed by interpretations that plodded. After a performance by Charles Oulmont, Ravel mentioned to him that the piece was called "Pavane for a dead princess", not "dead pavane for a princess". When asked by the composer-conductor Manoah Leide-Tedesco how he arrived at the title Pavane pour une infante défunte, Ravel smiled coyly and replied, "Do not be surprised, that title has nothing to do with the composition. I simply liked the sound of those words and I put them there, c'est tout". However, Ravel also stated that the piece depicted a pavane as it would be danced by an Infanta found in a painting by Diego Velázquez.
When Ravel published his orchestrated version of the Pavane in 1910, he gave the lead melody to the horn, and specified a non-generic instrument: the score calls for "2 Cors simples en sol" (two hand-horns in G).
The first gramophone recording of the Pavane was made in 1921 in Paris.
Ravel himself made a piano roll recording of the piece in 1922.
Popularity
As of 2020, it is ranked 230th in the Classic FM Hall of Fame, aggregated over 25 years.
Adaptations
In addition to numerous recorded performances within the classical repertoire, More recently, the Pavane appears in dozens of popular albums under both French
</references>